Gilmanton library searching for funds after ballot defeat

By DAN SEUFERTUnion Leader CorrespondentMarch 18. 2013 8:20PMGILMANTON - After getting town funding for the past three years as requested, the privately owned and run Gilmanton Year-Round Library was left without more than half of its 2013 budget last week when voters defeated its funding article at town elections.

As a result, the library is not going to stay open past November unless it can find other sources of funding.

On the library's web page, its board of directors announced that thanks to "prior fundraising efforts, the doors will remain open until Nov. 1, 2013."

"Of course, the library will graciously continue to accept any contributions that may allow it to extend operations beyond that date," it said.

The library, one of three in town but the only one running year-round, was opened in 2009 and was denied its first official funding request that year. But each year since, residents at town meetings approved articles for its funding of $45,000, which support its yearly $70,500 budget.

Last week, voters defeated Article 37 at town elections 401-322 at the town's first elections in the SB-2 format.

"For whatever reason, the people didn't feel they needed to support it," said Selectman Ralph Lavin.

The library's treasurer, Fred Buchholz, thinks the economy played a role in the vote.

"There's a general feeling that we shouldn't spend our money on things we don't absolutely need right now," he said.

But he thinks the SB-2 format was a factor, too. "There weren't a lot of people at a meeting discussing it, and we only had a 30 percent turnout at the elections, so 70 percent of the people didn't express themselves," Buchholz said.

The library's board of directors invites patrons and other community members to join them March 28 at 7 p.m. "to brainstorm fundraising options."

"We welcome all your support and ideas," the board said on the library's website.